Energy North Korea

Peter Hayes is a Don Quixote for the 21st century, a tall, dashing dreamer with a mission that some find foolhardy and others farfetched, but that all deem noble in spirit and purpose. With a lot of imagination and a little money, Hayes has set out to rid the world of its deadliest weapons. And he's trying to do it with windmills. To counter a well-financed campaign to build a U.S.

Peter Hayes is a Don Quixote for the 21st century, a tall, dashing dreamer with a mission that some find foolhardy and others farfetched, but that all deem noble in spirit and purpose. With a lot of imagination and a little money, Hayes has set out to rid the world of its deadliest weapons. And he's trying to do it with windmills. To counter a well-financed campaign to build a U.S.

Amid fireworks and applause, North Korean officials and representatives of a U.S. government-led consortium marked a new phase in the planned construction of two nuclear reactors Wednesday. But a senior U.S. official said the North wasn't complying with the terms of the deal. Under a 1994 U.S.-North Korean agreement, the consortium was to build the reactors to meet the Communist country's desperate need for power.

Seeking to break a tense nuclear standoff with its rival to the north, South Korea said today that it would no longer press North Korea to exchange envoys as a precondition for further talks. The envoy swap, along with full nuclear inspections, has been a key precondition for high-level talks between the United States and North Korea on improving ties and resolving the dispute over the North's suspected nuclear weapons development program.

A senior North Korean official said Saturday that a nuclear accord between North Korea and the United States will help forge a new era of normal relations between the two countries by establishing a basis for enhanced "trust and confidence" on nuclear issues and other matters. In a rare interview, Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju, the chief North Korean negotiator on nuclear matters, hailed the two-page statement of understanding approved by the U.S.

Lunching recently at one of his resorts, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il mused that the capital of rival South Korea was a handsome city with a grave flaw: bad air. Certainly, the mountains that border Seoul fade from sight on a smoggy day and the roads are often choked with cars, unlike the communist North's Pyongyang, a capital of parks and boulevards with a sixth of the population.

Engineer Kim Chang Ho monitors the daily ebb and flow of river water into a Japanese colonial-era dam. But there's one variable he can't fathom: North Korea, which lies upstream. Democratic South Korea and communist North Korea are split by a sealed border and animosity that dates from the 1950-53 Korean War. But they share a major tributary of the Han River, which cuts through the heart of Seoul, the South Korean capital.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell shook hands with North Korea's foreign minister. They sipped coffee. Not much in most circumstances, but for the secretive Stalinists of North Korea it amounted to a blatant overture. Powell met with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun on the sidelines of a regional Asian summit on security in Brunei, and both said later they hoped for meaningful talks.

SEOUL -- North Korea announced Tuesday that it would restart nuclear facilities that were closed as part of a 2007 international disarmament agreement. The move comes at the urging of the communist state's leader, Kim Jong Un, for the country to build up its economy and develop its nuclear program. North Korean state media KCNA reported that the move was to make "a positive contribution" to solve the country's acute electricity shortage and to bolster its "nuclear armed force" in quality and quantity.